Russia curbs YouTube as Kadyrov calls for complete ban

Russia has slowed down the speed of American YouTube in its country by nearly 70%. This is a reaction to the creation of its alternative and the increasing presence of "anti-Russian" content on the platform, which opposes the Kremlin. According to Kadyrov, Russia should take a step further and completely shut down YouTube.

The war in Ukraine has been ongoing for two and a half years. During this time, many sanctions have been imposed on Russia, to which Russia had to respond. Aside from economic sanctions, there was also technological exclusion that particularly hurt the Russian elites from big cities.

Over time, Russians began circumventing this, returning again to the world's most popular social media platforms. However, there, they increasingly encountered information from the West that was dangerous to Kremlin policies, and the Russian government began to fight against this.

As a result, recent media reports indicate that Russians have managed to use certain features of the American platform and create their equivalent of YouTube. Now, it turns out that the Kremlin authorities are so convinced of the excellence of this copy that they decided to combat the original by slowing down its data transmission by over 70%.

— Close YouTube to hell. Unfortunately, we are late: YouTube should have been shut down a long time ago — said the Chechen leader after the Friday slowdown of the American platform. According to Kadyrov, too lenient treatment of American social media slows the development of Russian technologies.

The Chechen leader points to China as an example of the correct policy. In his opinion, precisely cutting off access for local citizens to foreign media helped develop "patriotic" Chinese applications. However, to propagate such platforms, engaging the country's most popular stars is necessary.

According to Kadyrov, Russian social networks are not developing because "our top artists, actors, and athletes" use foreign platforms. "If we closed everything like in China and other places, our own websites would develop," he told journalists.